A Masterclass with Shannon Gibney,
Thursday, 4th June, 16:00
(VMP 6, Raum C11013 – registration essential, please email christine.lehnen (at) uni-hamburg.de(christine.lehnen"AT"uni-hamburg.de))

US-author, academic and essayist Shannon Gibney will be joining us on her book tour to speak to students and interested colleagues about how to work across a vast variety of genres ranging from narrative non-fiction to children's fiction. She is currently promoting her children's book We Miss You, George Floyd, has written extensively about recent events in Minneapolis, and is a Professor of English at Minneapolis College. She is happy to speak about the political situation in Minneapolis and the wider United States.

Professional Development: What are Creative Writing PhDs and why would we want one?
with Christine Lehnen –
Tuesday, 30th June, 18:00 Uhr (VMP 6, Raum A9005):

Malina Zahn will be in conversation with Dr Christine Lehnen on the subject of Creative Writing PhDs. What are they, how do we get them, and why would we want to? Christine will open the evening by giving an overview of her experience of gaining a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Manchester from 2021 to 2023: how she came to do this, why she wanted to do it, what the point of it all was, what the doctorate has to do with her latest book, and how the PhD has played out in her career as a novelist and scholar so far. She will also speak about the challenges of earning a doctorate in creative writing in a second language and an unknown university system, and talk about how she knew that a PhD would be right for her. This  will be followed with plenty of time for an informal Q&A where Christine will be happy to answer any creativity- and career-related questions.

Hamburg Lecture in Creative Writing: Autofiction, Literary Fiction and Publishing – What is Creative Writing Today? with Toby Litt –
Wednesday, 1st July, 16:00 (VMP 6, A 13003)

British author and academic Toby Litt (University of Southampton) will be speaking about writing auto- and literary fiction in today’s challenging publishing environment. Toby's literary novels are published by Galley Beggar Press, and he has won multiple short story awards. His opera "Vastatation (Nichtung)" was first performed in Munich and Regensburg in 2014. His Dead Boy Detectives comic series has been adapted for television by Netflix. Toby will speak about creative writing as a field, where it has come from and where is it going, and he will be happy to answer questions about the UK publishing industry.

Creative Writing Workshop: Writing Autofiction and Narrative Non-Fiction with Kevin Brazil –
Thursday, 2nd July, 10:00 (registration only – please e-mail christine.lehnen (at) uni-hamburg.de(christine.lehnen"AT"uni-hamburg.de))

Prof. Kevin Brazil (University of Southampton) will be teaching a workshop for our students on narrative non-fiction and autobiographical writing. Kevin's essays have been published in Granta, Paris Review, Times Literary Supplement and many others. His first book, Whatever Happened to Queer Happiness?, is published by Influx Press and was longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize in 2023. 

Storytelling Night: First Draft – Poems, Prose, Plays at the Ponybar!
Attention: change of date!  Monday, 6th July, Entry: 19:30 (Ponybar, Allende Platz 1, 20146 Hamburg)

The first anglophone Creative Writing department in Germany shares their work! Moderated by novelist and programme director Dr. Christine Lehnen and writing tutor Lilli Dahlke, four student headliners will read pieces of prose and poetry. After this, you might get a chance to read your best work during the open mic. Come by, grab a drink, and snap along!

Author Event: 'Since I’ve had my first book published, I’ve earned more from cleaning than from writing. The home economics don’t add up.'
In Conversation with Caitríona Lally – Friday, 3rd July, 16:00, Phil C 11013

Between 2015 and 2021 Caitríona Lally published her first two novels, Eggshells and Wunderland. To buy her time to write during those years, she returned to the housekeeping department at Trinity College Dublin, a job she enjoyed as a student. This began a negotiation between the practical and creative demands of her life, further complicated when she became pregnant and downright baffling when the pandemic hit. At Trinity, Lally and her colleagues moved through empty, hallowed libraries, bonding over rude conference attendees. At home, she was raising two children who didn’t sleep. And the success of her first book was making her second novel seem even more arduous. Amidst all this, it was cleaning work that brought her satisfaction – immediate and lasting.

In her first memoir, Lally writes with honesty and humour about trying to solve the equation of mother + cleaner + writer. Forward and thought-provoking, self-deprecating and soaked in her singularly frank voice, Caitríona Lally puzzles over personal economics, creativity and what 'success' and 'failure' really mean in this writer’s life. Caitríona is the winner of the 2018 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and was the inaugural Rooney Writing Fellow at Trinity College Dublin in 2019. Her novels are published by Melville House in the US, Borough Press in the UK, and New Island Press in Ireland. We are thrilled to welcome her to Hamburg!

SAVE THE DATE In conversation with Elif Batuman – 
13th July, 18:00 (VMP 6, Phil C)

The Pulitzer Prize Winning novelist Elif Batuman will be coming to the University of Hamburg on Monday, 13th July 2026, from 18:00. Please join us for a very special evening with the most exciting voice in world literature working today! Please check back here for further details to be announced in the coming days.